Very generally speaking an employer has the right to use any criteria it wants for hiring purposes (excepting illegal criteria, like ethnicity for instance). A company ordinarily has no obligation to consider candidates who don't care to follow the company's hiring protocol.... View More

No, not necessarily. It all depends on the facts, intent, and motivation of your employer, as well as whether or not you followed the law on requesting a reasonable accommodation. The employer knowing you are disabled is not enough. You must make a request for a reasonable accommodation, your... View More

Very generally speaking an employer can freely change work hour requirements. An employer must honor overtime laws and child labor laws and in some cases retail break laws but otherwise can set work hours and shifts pretty much as the employer sees fit. There is no law requiring changes to... View More

Just based on what you have presented I can't advise you. It requires meeting to discuss the case, review of paperwork, and research. However, it sounds like you may be open to getting in trouble with upper level management and should hire counsel to protect your rights.

You'd need an attorney to review the non-solicitation clause in the context of the entire agreement, to see if it is enforceable or applies to your planned new job. Your question sounds like it could possibly implicate a non-compete clause rather than non-solicitation.

You'd need to ask an attorney to tell you what the clause means. It might be a good idea to have the entire contract reviewed also.

There is nothing illegal about only having one HR staff person. If an employer complies with the laws and regulations applicable to it, that's all that matters. It's just difficult to do without professional help, as the workers comp incident illustrates. Employers can't retaliate... View More

No, it's not legally binding unless you "gave something up" of substance in reliance on the promise of the raise (known as "detrimental reliance"). An example of that would be that you were offered another position by another employer, and your current employer then made... View More

Maryland employers (that have at least 15 employees) are required to offer only unpaid maternity leave, under the Parental Leave Act. However, under the Maryland Flexible Leave Act, those employers must allow employees on unpaid leave to care for a newborn to elect to use their earned/accrued PTO... View More

As long as the employer gives at least a pay period advance notice to employee of a reduction in pay, they are not violating any laws in MD. However, your question raises the issue of whether you were appropriately classified as exempt in the first place- if your job duties have truly remained the... View More

As long as the employer's overall PTO policy provides the minimum sick/safe leave, they can require the employee to use earned PTO. However, if the employer does not set aside leave that can only be used for sick/safe purposes, the DLLR guidance states that it "strongly encourages such... View More

If you are classified as non-exempt (even if salaried), then an employer needs to pay you for any overtime you actually work- at your "regular rate of pay." It does sound like your supervisory duties might (or might not) allow the employer to classify you as exempt- as long as you make... View More

Both Montgomery County and Maryland now have sick leave laws, and the employer has to comply with the provisions that provide the most protection to the employee. But depending on the size of the employer, the benefits may be limited. And there are employee tenure (length of employment) and hours... View More

The subcontractor's right to be paid/treated as employees is separate from your entitlement to be paid for your work. If you are not being paid for hours or overtime you work (and are non-exempt), then you would probably have a claim. On the other hand, if you are truly salaried exempt (and... View More

The EEOC strongly suggests employers give applicants a conditional (tentative) offer of employment before conducting background checks- for similar reasons that some jurisdictions have "ban-the-box" laws. It is to give people with histories of arrest or conviction a chance to get their... View More

The answer depends on whether you mean "extra" compensation for the other work, or "no" compensation. Generally, as long as the employer is paying you for the time you spend working, they do not need to pay you more for taking on extra tasks.

However, the minimum wage... View More

Employers can round up or down as much as 15 minutes, as long as the overall effect is not to fail to pay employees for time they work. As described, this practice does not appear to fit within permissible rounding- if they are simply not paying for shifts under an hour.

The Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law gives you 3 years to sue for unpaid earned wages or overtime. There is the potential (not guaranteed) for punitive damages up to 3 times the unpaid wages. If you truly had an employment contract, that might control whether you have the right to file... View More

The job description is not definitive when it comes to the question of who is qualified to do the job. It can be strong evidence of what the employer considers qualified, but it is not a contract. But the larger issue is that the employer is not bound by their promise to promote you when you... View More

There are two separate issues here. The first is whether the employer broke the law by terminating you without good cause (or even any cause). Unfortunately, without more facts indicating that you were retaliated or discriminated against, your employer may legally terminate you- even if it... View More